Dragonspiral's Children
by Fobbie
Summary: A story of camaraderie with a family and growing up with them across the years.
1. Learning Experiences

_-Oh... Hello. Normally, I'm not really much of a storyteller... But... Since you're here... And you're listening to me... I guess I can tell you a bit of one about a family I know.-_

_

_-This story starts on a winter day... One that kids like to make a big fuss over. I remember the snow was a little heavy that year._

The tree was in the corner, decorated with tinsel and ornaments, with only a handful of presents left underneath its boughs. The weather was kinda cloudy, but considering how it's often overcast around Icirrus, I guess it was a bit of a small miracle that there was any sun at all. If you looked through the window that day, you might have been able to see windmills and Dragonspiral Tower frosted with snow in the distance.

Anyways, the family had three children, with a mom and a dad- a bit bigger than your standard video game family.*There were two boys.

The younger of the family's two boys was around five or six. I remember he was eagerly playing with a toy truck.-

"Vroom! Vroom! No mountain's a match for these tires!"

_-The older boy was right on the verge of going into middle school. Being the sardonic creature he was, he made some commentary while rooting around for a final gift under the tree.-_

"Uh huh... So... When should we expect that thing to get across Twist Mountain?"

_-The two had a sister who was snugly between them in age. During this, she chimed in while examining a music player.-_

"Well, your gift can't be _that_ good if it was just buried under the tree like-"

_-Normally, this would continue on until they got tired of arguing with each other, but that day, something else cut the normal banter short.-_

"Whoa! You got me a starter?!"

_-Which, naturally for the girl, when you see your sibling get something nice that you don't, leads you to jump to conclusions and say things like.-_

"What?! Moooom! He's not _old_ enough to have a Pokémon!"

_-Yeah, he was the one who got to open up that ball. A run-of-the mill red-and-white, but hey, with that ribbon and polished surface, it would have been kinda hard to not get excited. Their father really seemed to be getting a kick out of the occasion. But, being a parent and having to be responsible... He was quick to make a few clarifications.-_

"Heh heh... You're right, he's not. But... It's not strictly _his_ gift. It's something your mother and I got for all of you to practice with."

_-The older brother didn't exactly like hearing that.-_

"Aw, come on, I can take care of it! What's another year, anyways?" -Yeah, exactly. I didn't fully get why that day played out the way it did with the red-and-white, but given how the daughter took it, I suppose I can understand.-

"... So what did you get us?"

_-Though the younger brother was probably the better argument. He had an awful lot of fun with guessing what was in that red-and-white-_

"A Garchomp? Oh! Oh! Or maybe it's a Tyranitar!"

_-Uh... Yeah. It wasn't something __**that**__ out of the ordinary... At least not for people from this town. Which the father was quick to point out, gotta keep those expectations from running too wild and all.-_

"Not exactly. I chose something a bit more... Closely related to home."

_-For context... You know how kids sometimes get a Lillipup or a Purrloin for Christmas or something? Well, in Icirrus, a lot of more traditional folks like to give Pokémon from around that tower in the north in their stead. Which for the kids in the same room as a purple weasel resting and playing around with its wispy fur next to the tree...-_

"... Another weasel like your Mienshao?"

_-Normally, a scrawny Mienfoo __**would**__ have been what these kids got, but... Someone decided to be a little different.-_

"I put some thought into it... But I think that you'll appreciate the gift more if you see what the Pokémon is for yourself."

_-Which __**probably**__ wasn't the smartest thing to say in front of his wife. After all, if the expectation is that you're going to give the kids a Mienfoo and you up and say that you're not going to... Well...-_

"... Hmm? What _did_ you get them, then?"

_-It raises a few questions. Not that they were exactly on the minds of the kids the same way, especially not the littlest one's.-_

"Come on! Come on! Open it already!"

"Alright! Alright!"

_-And much to everyone's surprise, when the Pokémon came out of that ball, it was a blue winged hunchbacked lizard with a red head. Being drug out in the middle of winter takes a lot out of a Pokémon that needs warmth, so she was kinda drowsy.-_

"Gon..."

_-After she yawned and started to curl up under the tree, going in order of youngest to oldest, this is more or less how the reactions played out:-_

"AWESOME!"

"EEE~ A DRUDDIGON!"

"Thanks for the Christmas present, dad!"

_-Which made her open her eyes a bit more, seemingly-random excitement being kinda an impediment to resting and all.-_

"Well, I was going to put _her_ under the tree with a ribbon, but... I decided that things would be more exciting with a bit more surprise to it."

_-However, not __**everyone**__ was terribly enthused about getting a large carnivorous lizard added to their family.-_

"Dear... I thought you were going to get them something _easy_ to care for like a Deerling!"

_-Naturally, when someone thinks that the thing you're doing is a really bad idea, you try to convince them otherwise, and say things like...-_

"Now, now. A Druddigon _is_ easy to care for..."

"... Shao...?"

_-... Things that are normally not as big of of a stretch as that. I think I remember even his Mienshao was a bit flummoxed by that claim, too._

Which of course, required some clarification...-

"... For a Dragon Pokémon, of course."

"They have sandpaper hides! Why did you not get them a Mienfoo?!"

_-While what the man said was certainly __**true**__... As you could tell, the wife didn't really think that much of that explanation._

I think I remember the father taking a bit of a more academic route after that. Something like...-

"... This one has a smoother hide than some others. And we _have_ a Mienshao... Hardly the sort of Pokémon fit for children who haven't gotten licensed yet...

Besides, she's still young, a bit inexperienced. and a great representative of that tower. Why, it's practically synonymous with this town!"

_-I'm pretty sure that this was the point when his wife started to register that she was going to be stuck with a blue-and-red lizard in the house._

One of the things that I'm pretty sure got passed down in the family from the dad's side was a tendency to poke gentle fun at others, since I remember him teasing his wife a bit as she protested:-

"I was under the impression that it was the _windmills_ that were synonymous, dear..."

"Oh come now, if the kids went off on a route, would you trust them with a Deerling or a Druddigon?"

_-The wife kinda got really exasperated at this point, and pointed at the Druddigon under the tree exclaiming:-_

"I'd trust them with _neither!_ Routes are closed to travelers without licenses!"

_-Which is kinda confusing for a Pokémon that's kinda tired and not fully sure what's going on. I'm pretty sure that everyone that was in that room still remembers how the Druddigon poked her head out from under the tree and give it a bit of a quizzical tilt._

It was then that the husband finally pulled out his trump card: An appeal to intimacy.-

"Druddi... Gon?"

"Oh come on, it'll be a learning experience...

For everyone."

_-Obviously being a 'learning experience' and all, there were bound to be a few innocent misunderstandings...-_

_

_-One of them happened just a couple days afterward._

The younger brother wanted to head out to play in the snow, "winter wonderlands" and all of that...-

"Heeeey! Come on! Let's play!"

_-Which, for a dragon in the dead of winter, sounds about as appealing as jumping off a- ... Wait, that analogy doesn't work, but I'm sure you understand what I meant. Anyways, the Druddigon did what was most logical for her, namely give a low growl back and keep her scales planted firmly in front of that fireplace._

But... Little kids kinda are stubborn types, and the little guy started tugging at the Druddigon's arm.-

"Don't be such a lazy butt! You've been curled up in front of that fire all day already! Let's go make snow angels!"

_-Which again, wasn't a terribly popular proposition for her...-  
_  
"Gon..."

_-You know, seeing as she'd go into torpor if her body temperature got too low. Just a __**minor**__ annoyance._

Unfortunately, the little kid didn't really take the hint and only started tugging harder at her arm-

"Come on! I _said_, get up- Ow!"

_-At this point, the Druddigon had had quite enough, and did what any Pokémon fed up with being harried by a little kid would do. Get up, shove the little tyke to the ground, and give a loud growl to tell him to step off.-_

"Meep!"

_-Once again, misunderstandings, but they worked through them.  
That wasn't quite the end of that incident, unfortunately. The younger brother kinda made a bit of an obnoxious and whiny appeal to his father after that. Y'know, trying to get his way with the guy who the toughest Pokémon in the house listens to and all.-_

"Daddy! The Druddigon's not listening!"

_-His older brother, being the font of sarcasm that he was, couldn't pass up the chance to put in a barb.-_

"Good on her, I wouldn't want to listen to you either!"

"HEY!"

_-Thankfully, I remember their father being a bit of a calmer type. He came right in along with that Mienshao of his. While the Mienshao tried to explain to the Druddigon that the little kid wasn't actively trying to be a little twerp, the father also did his part to try and clear things up.-_

"... Erm... Why don't you try and find something to do with her indoors?"

_-Which probably wasn't quite what the little boy wanted to hear then.-_

"... Eh?"

_-I suppose that it doesn't make sense to be too hard on him, you do a lot of stupid things when you're young. His father kinda spelled things out for him.-_

"After all, a Pokémon travels along with humans because it wants to. You wouldn't appreciate someone trying to drag you off into the snow without clothes on would you?"

_-Which, naturally lead him to try and compromise and still somehow try to get his way.-_

"... Can't she just wear a jacket?"

_-Which didn't exactly go over well with the Druddigon, seeing as she kinda picked up on what the little kid was suggesting.-_

"... Druddigon?!"

_-And wasn't exactly what the man had hoped for, or his Mienshao for that matter. I remember that weasel facepalming hard enough to be heard afterwards.-_

"Mienshao..."

"... Again. She seems like she wants to stay warm. Surely you have something to do inside?"

_-This was around the time when the little guy finally started taking the hint.-_

"Well..."

_-Kind of.-_

_

_-I still can't believe that this actually happened afterwards. He took off his winter wear, and arrayed six stuffed dolls facing off against each other in groups of three. On one end, was himself.-_

"We're gonna have a triple battle!"

_-And on the other end was one very lost-looking Druddigon staring at the dolls blinking.-_

"... Druddigon?"

"Yeah! You line up three Pokémon, and they fight each other! The person with the last one standing wins!"

_-Given that she was giving a blank stare and visibly yawning at that point, you'd think that he'd have figured out that she wanted rest.-_

"Okay, I'll pick- HEY!"

_-Not that her snatching up the dolls, curling up on them, and dozing off right after *left much room for confusion.-_

"Those aren't pillows!"

_

_-Oh yeah... There were the misunderstandings over what was supposed to be done by whom._

On a night sometime during spring, I remember the father tried to get the Druddigon to do a bit of a favor for him and his spouse...-

"Okay... We're going to need you to watch over the kids while we're out..."

_-Which to her, surely sounded like nothing.*And the Meinshao would be there with her to show the ropes. Not that they would really be needed, would they?*After all, how do you screw up watching over something?-_

"Druddigon."

"Think you can do that?"

_-She nodded then, the first gesture that she picked up from the family, and seeing that the Mienshao seemed to indicate she was responding properly, answered with a confident tone.-_

"Gon."

_-Unfortunately, that's kinda where the smooth sailing ended. Seeing as the Druddigon*had just a bit of a different interpretation of*'watching over' than the father probably expected.-_

"Ow!"

_-Namely pushing over and sitting on top of the closest child to her, the daughter, and vigilantly watching for would-be interlopers.-_

"Gon gon."

"DAAAAD! She's crushing me!"

_-Yeah, she was kinda mad about that. Her older brother thought it was awfully funny, though.-_

"I dunno, she's definitely putting the 'sit' in 'babysitting' here."

_-The Meinshao hastily rushed over and tried to explain to the Druddigon that she had perhaps read just a __**little**__ bit too much into what was asked of her._

As for the father... Well, I'm not sure if burying your face in an open palm would exactly be characterized as an 'amused' expression.-

"... Erm... Not like that. And don't do that in front of the wife, please." -Yeah, he definitely wasn't amused.-

_

_-There were misunderstandings over what was okay and what was __**not**__ okay to do..._

There was this one incident when everyone was coming back from a corner store with some small treats.-

"... You don't think that mom and dad will mind if we eat this before dinner if _we_ paid for it, do you?"

_-Now, this wasn't the first time that any of them had made a run like this, but this time... They kinda ran into a bit of a jerk on the way home.-_

"What on earth is that?"

-Some college-aged trainer with a Tranquill. Fortunately for the younger brother, he was kinda oblivious to Mr. Bird Lover's less-than-inviting tone and proudly answered back.-

"It's a Druddigon!"

-Which made the stranger's Tranquil betray a look after that. That obnoxious 'Are you _stupid?_' look that I'm sure everyone's had to put up with at least once in life.-

"Tran... Quill?"

_-The stranger for his part wasn't exactly very inviting himself.-_

"I can see THAT, but why on earth do a bunch of little kids like _you_ have one?"

_-But for the Druddigon, that was kinda irrelevant, after all, here was a Tranquill. Just sitting in front of her as the humans in the picture were preoccupied.-_

"We're training it together! Isn't she awesome?"

_-And like any carnivorous lizard in proximity to a plump bird, she began to sniff at the Tranquill, and move her tongue over the edge of her maw at its scent.-_

"Druddi... Druddigon..."

_-The Tranquill started to get unnerved, but throughout the whole thing, that feather duster maintained a defiant attitude. At this point it fanned out its wings in challenge.-_

"Tranquill!"

_-Unfortunately for the Druddigon, the Tranquill's trainer noticed her behavior and her intentions for his Pokémon began to dawn on him.-_

"Uh... Right- Hey, what's the big idea here! Stop sniffing at him!"

_-Namely to make it into dinner._

And this was the part where the Druddigon pinned the Tranquill to the ground and bit and slashed at that bird to try and turn it into her next meal.-

"Gon!"

_-Which for the bird, lead to the panicked flailing and attempts to break free. You know, the basic things that you'd expect for something about to become lizard food.-_

"TRANQUILL!"

_-For an inattentive guy, that jerk sure registered change fast. I don't think I've ever remembered meeting another trainer reaching for a Pokéball as fast as he did. The kids were a close second since they weren't exactly expecting their friend to jump another Pokémon like that.-_

"AUGH! Get that thing off of him!"

_-So obviously, this was bound to not end well. Given that trained Pokémon aren't supposed to be eating other trained Pokémon and all. Unfortunately for the Druddigon...-_

_

_-She was kinda the one to get in trouble. And didn't get dinner out of it._

The kids' father came along shortly afterwards and tried to apologize for everything. The kids were just a bit taken aback from having to pry off their Pokémon off of some random stranger's. The feather duster was still alive, if busily cowering behind its trainer minus a few feathers...- 

"Tr-Tranquill!"

_-Okay, it was missing a __**lot**__ of feathers. And had a few lacerations. And puncture wounds. And the Druddigon was fuming from behind the kids about being stiffed over dinner while the Mienshao played damage control with her... Again.-_

"I am terribly sorry about that... She's still inexperienced being trained..."

_-Yeah... Mr. Bird Lover was kinda crabby about the whole ordeal.-_

"Mmrph. Some consolation that is to the trainer who almost lost a bird to that miserable lizard! Just look at what she did to his plumage!"

_-On the plus side, the older brother did make a fairly memorable defense. If one that probably didn't make the situation much better.-_

"That's a _bad_ thing? That Tranquill was making _me_ drool, too!" -Moving on from there...-

_

_-There were also some misunderstandings from the __**other**__ end... Especially when the whole 'revisiting homes' came into play._

Remember when I said that the Druddigon came from Dragonspiral Tower? Well, you could say that it's a bit of a common place to visit for people that live around it. Not sure whether it's the history behind the place, the fact that it's a shrine to a part of the local mythology, or just that people commonly train Pokémon from around there and don't want to make them homesick.

But anyways, those kids weren't an exception, and decided to pay a visit to the forests around the place. I mean, the inside's pretty neat and all, but something has to be said for that exterior craftsmanship, the daughter in particular was particularly impressed.-

"Wow... So this is where dad got her from?"

_-The place is really, __**really**__ old. And in just the right spots, like the one everyone was in back then, you can see Pokémon moving around inside, including the Golett shuffling around to and forth along the corridors. As for how old the place is...-_

"Looks like it's ancient... Think it's from the sixties?"

_-Er... Well, I suppose you couldn't really fault a kid barely in grade school for that. There weren't any excuses for his brother, though.-_

"No, you moron. Ancient history started in the thirties."

_-Let's just say the Druddigon and anyone with a half-working mind knew that it was significantly older and leave it at that._

Anyways, in the forests, you sometimes can spot little relics around. Which the Druddigon happened to run across. If I remember right, it was a small decorative pebble.-

"Druddigon!"

_-I'm not sure if it was part of a frieze, a mosaic, or was some holy pebble, but it was old, and it was mesmerizingly colorful. Naturally, the older brother couldn't help but go over to pick the thing up.-_

"Huh... What a neat rock."

_-Which wasn't the smartest possible thing to do, as two Druddigon and a Mienfoo popped up from the brush behind right afterward and loudly growled and hissed their displeasure._

Which I suppose wasn't terribly comforting for kids, it certainly wasn't for the daughter.-

"... Uh... I think we made them angry."

_-Her older brother's always been the type to get kinda snappy under pressure, which when you're busily backpedaling into the nearest tree, well...-_

"Gee, I could have figured that out!"

_-The younger brother's been one to try and act in the face of difficulty, even if it's in a bit of a blind panic like when you're outnumbered by angry-looking creatures._

Taking a bit of a cue from what he knew about training, he hastily attempted to command his guide:-

"Q-Quick, use Dragon-!"

_-However, credit for resolving that crisis really goes to the kids' Druddigon, who roared in her charges' faces.-_

"ACK!"

_-And after giving them a good scare that their Pokémon had turned against them, did what most Pokémon from around that area would have done.-_

"Hey! Wait, what are you-?!"

_-Namely wrench the stone out from the older brother's hand, carefully set it back down where it came from, and give him a scolding.-_

"Druddigon!"

_-It certainly satisfied the welcoming committee. They headed off after that, if still leering back warily every now and then to make sure that the kids and their guide weren't deceiving them._

It was around this time that the kids started to register just _**what**__ it was the older brother did that made those Pokémon so upset. I guess he must've found it to be fairly dumb, because he couldn't help but ask.-_

"... Wait... That's what they were mad about? A stupid rock?"

_-To be fair, I guess it would have been a little much to expect kids to know that the Pokémon in there guard every last flake of paint there like they would their young. It's a behavior that makes even brighter scientists scratch their head._

However, their Druddigon kinda was one of those Pokémon. And overhearing a slight over something that you too grew up caring about is... Well, something that quite understandably made her roar into the boy's face.-

"DRUDDIGON!"

"Okay! Okay! It's not so stupid! Yeesh!*Note to self, look, don't touch in here..."

_-Fortunately, those misunderstandings were easy to figure out.-_

_

_-It wasn't all awkward, though..._

We wound up finding out a lot about each other in those days. Later that spring, the little brother got into baking with his mother. I'm still kinda impressed the little squirt managed to lug that big tray around the kitchen like he did.

Which the family lizard was coincidentally resting in at the time.-

"... Druddigon?"

_-She got roused up pretty quickly by the smell of the stuff on the tray, and like I'm sure you've seen curious Pokémon do before, promptly sidled up to the tray sniffing at it as the older brother walked in and also noticed some stuff on the tray.-_

"What is that?"

_-They were these kinda misshapen pieces of bread. I guess if you squinted hard at them enough, you could kinda make out a resemblance between them and the Druddigon. The younger brother certainly saw it.-_

"It's Druddigon Bread! Mom helped me make it!"

_-Which I guess seemed pretty stupid to the older brother, I mean, dragons and bread aren't normally two words that you hear in the same sentence and all.-_

"... Druddigon Bread, seriously?"

"What? It seemed appropriate!"

"Druddigon eat MEAT, mor-!"

_-He shut up pretty quickly after he saw the Druddigon take one of the loaves and start to eat it. The first one went down slowly and hesitantly, the others..._

Well, from the way she practically inhaled the others, there wasn't a whole lot of room for confusion left.-

"... Huh. Maybe they DO eat bread, too."

_-Then there was school. It really bites that Pokémon aren't allowed to mingle with their trainers freely. Not that they didn't make attempts to get around it._

There was this one time in autumn when the older brother tried to use a cardboard box to get around that for the older brother's school. And it would've worked... If it weren't for the principal making the rounds around the school halls.-

"Good morning cardboard box..."

_-... They didn't really pan out, though._

In retrospect, I suppose betting on the old man not noticing a box in the middle of a hallway with a blue tail and red spikes sticking out was a bit of an unreasonable assumption. Even if he hadn't had his morning coffee.-

"... Cardboard box?"

_

_-That lecture afterwards in the principal's office was surely an annoying one. For all sides of the equation.-_

"-ing a Pokémon outside of its Pokéball unattended like that was EXTREMELY irresponsible, young man!"

_-That 'young man' thought that episode was terminally stupid, especially since he wound up getting detention from it afterwards.-_

"Why? We don't watch her every minute at home!"

_-I don't fully recall the nuances of what the Druddigon felt back then, but I think she was rather lost as to why the old man was so upset about everything.-_

"... Druddigon?"

_-Which was something that both of them found out pretty quickly as the old man spluttered up parts of his morning coffee.-_

"This is a school! Not your living room!"

_

_-To be fair, there __**were**__ times where Pokémon could be brought into school._

There was this one time where the older brother got to do a report about Pokémon. Kinda like a glorified show-and-tell, if with a little bit of biology worked in. Normally, you'd go up, present alongside your Pokémon if you had one, and things would go smoothly.

That day, he was keen to bring along the Druddigon. As for his report... Er...-

"My report is on Druddigon. Ahem..."

_-I must say that he definitely had a good sense of drama, he highlighted his blue-and-red companion and began to read off a hastily-written report in front of the class...-_

"Dusk! With an eerie forboding sensation, you hear the tread of heavy feet! Druddigon! With glowing yellow eyes, vivid red heads, and blue hides, these fierce dinosaurs prowl-!"

_-Which lead to the swift and unanimous response of the classroom that:-_

"DRUDDIGON AREN'T DINOSAURS!"

"Look, who's giving the report? You chowderheads, or me?!"

_-There were a lot of things he could have talked about. The Sharpedo-like... There's a name for it... 'Dermal denticles'...? Anyways, we'll stick with "toothed scales" since the term eludes me. The "glowing eyes" that focus better in low light. The glands that generate gases that get lit up by weak currents for breath attacks... I think they're called 'electrogenic cells'. Something like that._

But no, that report was pretty much a cartoon drawing with fangs on it. At least he got credit for the art!-

"Gon..."

_-Yeah, I'm pretty sure you would've facepalmed in front of the class like her too after a showing like that.-_

_

_-Of course, eventually it came time to actually get starters._

Unlike what television and video games would have you believe, most of the time, your 'starter' Pokémon is just whatever Pokémon you catch first with a license with the help of a borrowed Pokémon. It's kinda a big deal and all, when the older brother got his, he pretty much thought he was the king of the world as he walked into the family kitchen*proudly tossing a plastic and metal orb up and down*to show off to his mother.-

"Hey mom! Check out what I got for a starter!"

_-She was rather curious that day. After all, it would be another member of her family, and it probably was a little on the fast side for her son to be getting a starter even after clearing formal licensing and testing...-_

"Oh? A starter? What did you- ACK!"

_-Much to her startled shock, the boy's choice was a magenta and green creature that was probably a bit more chitinous than she would have wanted.-_

"Pretty cool, huh? Got the Venipede myself!"

_-Which was probably a bit more of glory hounding than was really needed. The Druddigon certainly thought so, she WAS the one who did the hard work helping with the catch and all, and was quick to remind the boy of that with an irked grunt.-_

"Druddigon!"

_-For the mother, scolding her son over not giving credit where it was due was probably a bit of a secondary concern. She was fairly busy climbing onto the nearest chair and giving feedback to her son's choice of starter.-_

"GET THAT THING OUT OF THE HOUSE!"

_-Some choices were... Less prudent than others._

The Mienshao thought the whole incident was kinda funny, as for the Druddigon, I'm pretty sure that her expression was more or less the closest thing that a Druddigon could make to an eye roll.-

_

_-Oh, right. I forgot to mention. Apparently there's something called 'Trainer's Leave' that happens around the time that kids go into middle school. It's essentially a month of journal keeping and absentee homework as kids take their shot at becoming the next League Champion._

Which for the older brother, came just a few months after getting that Venipede. His pick for a first gym was close to home, the local dugout of a gym before Brycen had retired and moved on to starring in B-Movies.

I recall that he seemed to understand the gravity of the challenge, being the first major test of training prowess and all... But that he couldn't quite decide what to make of the place as he stood outside the main gate.-

"... Druddigon?"

_-And of course, the Druddigon was there too. Since only coming with a Venipede probably would have been a rather sad showing._

He was really confident that day, and the emblems of the Unova League plastered around the entrance didn't do much to really tamp down that enthusiasm much.-

"Heh. Ice gym, huh? Well, _they_ didn't get a tower to themselves.

So let's win this thing!"

_-And like many a trainer before him, he set off with his party of two, met and greeted an old man who gave him a Fresh Water for his ordeal and went in.  
Sometimes, kids do some really crazy things during those breaks. But usually...-_

_

_-Things get bogged down pretty fast._

In the boy's case, his confidence kinda got squashed by a slab of ice pretty fast along with his accompanying Pokémon. I would presume that on his way out alone, he probably started to register just what kind of ordeal he was up against.-

"... First gyms aren't supposed to be that HARD..."

_-It took all of Trainer's Leave just for him to get __**past**__ Brycen! And the old codger was going easy!-_

_

_-Some trainers wind up taking a bit of a different approach to training. Trainers like the daughter._

She wound up getting her starter in the spring a few years after her older brother. On the day she picked up her starter, she was positively beaming, and walked into the living room to share her new companion with her father.-

"Daddy! Daddy! Look at the cute Pokémon that I got!"

_-I still remember how this played out: He turned to see his daughter, expecting to see a Pokémon from the surroundings accompanying her...-_

"Oh? What did you-?"

_-Only to see a rather pathetic and startled-looking brown lizard in her arms. The thing had most of its head and snout covered up by some kind of bone helmet. Or at least it __**looked**__ bony... They're apparently usually made mostly out of stone and clay, so who knows. The little pipsqueak was clinging onto a worn-out bone, probably scavenged from some dead thing, like its life depended on it.-_

"Cu- C-Cu-"

_-While the encounter was definitely a bit better than when her brother had shown off his first mon, it still took the man aback. After all, here was this strange creature that wasn't from around where his daughter said she would be off searching for a starter... _

So then how did she get it?-

"... I thought that you said that you were catching Pokémon up in the north."

"I was! And I caught a Mienfoo! But then I ran into this trainer with this really cute thingy-"

_-It's called 'trading'. Basically, Pokémon get swapped around and follow different trainers, take different orders. It can be an interesting experience, back then, the father's lavender companion took the opportunity to inspect the strange new member of the household.-_

"... Shao?"

_-Which probably wasn't what it needed, since little lizard rather visibly flinched afterwards as the father explained just what the little creature was.-_

"... That's a Cubone, dear."

"Right, and he offered to trade! Isn't it adorable?"

_-It was around this time that the runt began to squeak. From what I understand, it wanted to be anywhere far, far away from the strange creatures in the room that probably are fierce and frightening from the perspective of an eighteen-inch tall lizard.-_

"Bone!"

_-One of the things that kids get taught fairly early on is to not corner a Pokémon when it's scared. And while I guess hugging something doesn't necessarily register as "cornering" or being intimidating to the mind of a young girl, you'd think the squirming would have tipped her off like it did with her father.-_

"Um, dear, you might want to set it do-"

_-But by then, it was a bit late. The Cubone whacked the girl's arm, causing her to drop it as she nursed a bruise left behind that stuck around for about a week.-_

"OW! It hit me!"

_-While her Pokémon tumbled to the ground and made a beeline to cower behind the couch.-_

"B-Bone! CUBONE!"

_-Yeah... That probably could have been a better first impression for the man.-_

"Oh boy..."

_-Likewise for the Pokémon in the room. The Druddigon in particular was rather unimpressed by the whole debacle and gave an annoyed groan.-_

"Druddigon..."

_-I suppose it's understandable, though. Trading obviously can be a bit disorienting and intimidating.-_

_

_-For both sides of the equation, especially when you find out that those cute Pokémon are a handful to take care of._

About a month after the Cubone came along, spring was melting into summer. And the moon grew full at night. Which for those of you who have ever been around Cubone, is often a terrible time for trying to get any sleep.

For the family that lived in a little house on the outskirts of Icirrus, they too discovered that, as the creature's cries filled the house that night.-

"Argh! Why won't that stupid bonehead shut UP?! I've got an exam tomorrow!"

_-The older brother was particularly aggravated by that one. After all, he made the... Erm... "Reasonable?" choice to train a mundane Pokémon from nearby the town, and here he was suffering for his sister's choice._

But such frustrations quickly gave way, or at least I hope they did, after the Cubone's crying died down and the normal quiet of night set in.- 

"... Finally."

_-Now, the older brother in the family may have been a bit mouthy sometimes, but he wasn't the type to just shrug things off when something seemed amiss.-_

"... Hey wait a moment, that thing never quiets down THAT fast."

_-And that meant getting up and making sure that his respite that night hadn't come at some unexpected cost. It was actually quite admirable... Maybe._

So anyways, he got up, and like any other kid who wants to move around in a house in the dead of night, crept down the hallway quietly towards where the earlier cacophony came from.-

"... Hello? Uh... Curses, what did she name that thing again? Are you alri-?"

_-I'm not sure whether or not being answered by a low growl was reassuring or not.-*_

"Gon!"

_-Though if he wasn't reassured, seeing the household Druddigon curling around the form of a sniffling Cubone that was finally starting to doze off on its flank probably did the trick.-_

"... Oh... Er... Thank you..."

_-I imagine he must have been grateful, after all, he did get __**some**__ sleep before his exam that night, or he was a bit too sleep-deprived to really care. Either way, he stuck out his hand and patted the crest of the Druddigon saying:-_

"Shame we can't just ask you what's going on... You seem to understand that little bone lizard better than we can..."

_-Sometimes those little headaches just require a little bit more effort than normal to get to know and befriend. Which was something that I think the boy walked away with that night as the Druddigon growled softer and began to doze off herself.-_

_

_-A few months after her rocky first impression with her Cubone, it came time for the daughter to try her luck too at the whole "challenging a gym during Trainer's Leave" thing._

She planned everything out so much, she'd start from Opelucid first instead of at home, and then work her way through easier gyms outward before doubling back home.

It all seemed so perfect to her, or at least someone would have surmised that if they had seen her more or less glowing in front of the gym's dark stone and dragon head statues that day.-

"Well, since _someone_ was a moron and fought the gym he had no chance against for _his_ first gym! We're gonna try a different one!"

_-Not everyone there was quite as enthusiastic, the Druddigon in particular was fairly skeptical, and expressed as much.-_

"Druddi... Gon?"

_-Were she able to, I think she would've have thrown in an equally skeptical bead of sweat._

Her companions were a bit less openly dubious of their chances. The Cubone had grown more acclimated to its larger companion, and had been joined by a Deerling a short time before this challenge. In case you were wondering, no, the Deerling did not have a stint almost becoming Druddigon food, as corny as it sounds, the Druddigon had figured out the whole "friends aren't food" thing a couple of years back.

But still, the two couldn't help but trade glances to each other, the kind of "are we _**sure**__ she knows what she's doing?" glances that anyone could interpret.-_

"Ta-dah! Why, with this combination of cuteness and toughness, and three Pokémon instead of two, we're a shoo-in!"

_-There's no way I could possibly forget when she did this...-_

_

_-Because it utterly __**sucked**__._

Like her older brother, the daughter similarly didn't last very long in her challenge, and left the dragon-headed building alone. She was rather taken aback by how much she underestimated her ordeal and how utterly her careful planning evaporated.-

"But I don't understand... Dragon Claw was supposed to be super effective!"

_

_-What's that look supposed to mean? The story isn't __**done**__. And I'll tell you how I know about it later! Sheesh! Haven't you ever heard of pacing?_

Though that is more or less how that early part of their lives went...-


	2. Truths and Ideals

_-So after the initial breaking of the ice and early awkwardness, it was kinda inevitable that the family would find its world getting a bit bigger. What do I mean by that? Well..-_

_

_-There's the whole "moving" thing that sometimes happens._

Not too long after the daughter had her Trainer's Leave, the family found itself with a new set of faces next door. The day the new neighbors came, all of the children trained their eyes on a light-colored moving van not too far from their home. The ferrying of furniture out of it and into the house next door proved mesmerizing not only to them, but to their Pokémon. It was a rather novel experience, particularly for the younger brother, who asked about the curious happening:-

"... What's going on?"

_-His brother was quick to respond, as he and his charges, a Whirlipede and a Tympole, took turns peeking around the end of the low fence along the property line at the strange people moving in and out of the nearby house.-_

"Tch. Oh come on, you haven't seen this before? We're getting new neighbors-!"

_-Much to everyone's surprise, their stakeout of the neighboring house was then interrupted by a perky girl's voice from behind:-_

"Hi!"

_-Which prompted the three children and the Pokémon accompanying them to whirl around, where they saw a girl with short hair and glasses just a little older than the daughter in their family. It was not communicated to her, but the Druddigon sensed something peculiar about this new face.-_

"Druddi... Gon?"

_-The elder brother was kinda caught off guard by the girl's abrupt appearance. He introduced himself with a somewhat awkward:-_

"Erm... Hi?"

_-His sister maintained her composure better, and quickly figured out just who this stranger was.-_

"Oh, you're that new neighbor girl, huh?"

"Uh huh! Just moved here from Opelucid-!"

_-She was the elder child in a family of four, her only companion a brother still in his toddler years, who popped into view in the corner of the children's eyes playing with a ball... Or was he? The girl took quite an interest in the Druddigon before her, which at first struck the children as a bit odd.-_

"Wow! You've got a dragon too? He looks like he'd get along well with my Axew!"

_-The younger brother, now the lone one amongst his siblings, too young to be entrusted with a Pokémon of his own, was quick to correct the stranger:-_

"Er... She."

_-Yeah... Kinda awkward for someone who trained a dragon herself, but the girl eventually broke the silence with a sheepish change of topic:-_

"... Aheh... Right. It's so confusing to tell between dragons sometimes... Anyways, say hi, buddy!"

_-The eyes of the welcoming group darted around, expecting to see a Pokémon come forth, only to see nothing. It was only after they noticed some shuffling behind the legs of their new neighbor that they finally saw a pair of small red eyes timidly peeking out._

The Druddigon gave a quizzical growl and attempted to peek back at the hiding figure, which caused it to nervously shift back. The younger brother, curious as to what the hiding creature was, attempted to reassure it.-

"Aww... Come on! Don't be shy! She's a lot nicer than she looks!"

_-The figure came out reluctantly, and revealed itself to be a small green runt of a dragon with tusks, which timorously gave- Er... An introduction?-_

"A... Axew..."

_-The Druddigon, not knowing what to make of the strange creature before her, but sensing that it felt uncomfortable, tilted her head inquisitively, and then pat the creature's head, which the daughter was quick to pounce upon.-_

"See? She doesn't bite! ... Usually!"

_-The children gladly watched as the Axew's misgivings melted away and gave way to a cautious gregariousness. Though the elder brother still couldn't help but wonder:-_

"What's the story with the Axew?"

"Oh, we used to live in Opelucid, so it's not that uncommon to train Pokémon like him. I originally was going to get a Deino... But mom and dad said I couldn't because of my brother. But I think that I like this little guy better anyways!"

_-The explanation was... Surprisingly nonchalant, though I suppose that had the children known back then that she had a small mound of Drayden posters in her bedroom, they would not have been so surprised.-_

_

_-Sometimes the new friends that you wind up making become a bit of a bad influence, which the family discovered for themselves. A couple of days later, a certain family's children and their new neighbor girl found themselves around a set of narrow stairs in the interior of a local windmill. While the innards of the local windmills were certainly a sight to behold, and one to show off to those unfamiliar with Icirrus, the children had already done so with the neighbor girl earlier. And it was nigh time to return home for dinner... Were it not for two small problems.-_

"Hey! Come down from there!"

_-The neighbor girl futilely called up the set of stairs, towards her Axew that had wandered off. But not on his own, as the exasperated voice of the younger brother soon betrayed.-_

"Yeah! You two are going to get us into trouble! We're already late to come home!"

_-The two, while eluding the children's line of sight, were quick to respond to their trainers. The Axew, being made a tad uneasy by the tone of the two voices, answered uneasily in a tone that seemed to be pleading or stalling for time. The Druddigon was a bit more forthright, and answered with a gruff and stubborn growl._

Which wasn't exactly what the children wanted to hear- the older brother, who had more duties and responsibilities to juggle at his age was especially irked.-

"What's so great about that stupid windmill anyways?! Get down here!"

_-But the Druddigon would not yield, and responded with a still louder and gruffer growl. By this time the daughter had had quite enough, and began to climb the stairs.-_

"Okay _fine_, you stubborn lizards! We'll come get you!"

_-As the exasperated girl reached the top, she quickly found the offending Druddigon and Axew calmly staring out of the windmill...-_

"There, are you two _happy_ no-? Oh!"

_-...Towards a panorama of Icirrus at sunset._

As she too looked out, the daughter couldn't help but understand what had lead the Pokémon to inconvenience them so. Why, with the last few rays of light painting the sky and lending an orange tint to Dragonspiral Tower in the distance and the windmills punctuating the town... She too felt the urge to stay a while.-

"... Oh... So _that's_ what you two saw up here..."

_-The Axew offered a meek and apologetic look, hoping it would appease the girl.-_

"Axew..."

_-While it did make the girl pause for a bit, trouble was trouble, and the culprit of this debacle had to be identified. The girl quickly hardened her expression and questioned as sternly as her voice could muster:-_

"Alright, so which one of you put the other up to running off like that?"

_-Which much to her chagrin, prompted some hasty claw-pointing among the two dragon Pokémon, and stymied her attempts at divining who was at fault for the inconvenience.-_

"Axew!"

"Druddigon!"

"...

Well, you can't say that they're not like us..."

_-I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to which of the two influenced the other.-_

_

_-That time was also one in which the family members began to learn different lessons about life. One particularly noteworthy season of it was during the summer following the arrival of the new neighbors. It had been a couple of years since the Christmas Day that started this story, and the schools had let out. The three children of a certain house on the outskirts of Icirrus were filling up an inflatable pool with a hose, intending to play with their Pokémon._

The Druddigon had already helped herself to the accommodations and was lounging in the cool water to escape the seasonal heat.-

"Druddi... Druddigon."

_-Unfortunately for the others who were also seeking refuge from the summer heat, the youngest observed that the pool was a bit...-_

"... I think we should ask mom to get us a real pool. I don't think you could squeeze a Joltik into the space that's left!"

_-Cramped. As the children and their Pokémon mulled how to somehow squeeze a second body into the pool, their mental gymnastics were quickly cut off by a cheerful and now-familiar voice.-_

"Heey!"

"Hmm?"

_-The daughter turned around, and saw the cheerful form of the neighbor girl. As usual, she was followed by her Axew, who now went about the neighborhood with a great deal more confidence and familiarity with his surroundings than when he first met the figures huddled around the overcrowded kiddie pool.-_

"I got tickets to a Dragon Tamer convention back home! Wanna come?"

_-The invitation seemed innocent enough, and even a bit exciting... Though the elder brother, as with many other things, couldn't help but maintain a healthy dose of skepticism.-_

"... Do we _look_ like Dragon Tamers here?"

_-The neighbor girl chuckled a bit and attempted to reassure the three children:-_

"Well... You _do_ have one...

And besides, I'm sure someone will appreciate the company."

"Ax-Axew!"

_-The neighbor girl's companion waved eagerly, doing his best to welcome his pool-deprived friends to tag along. But more importantly for him, he was also doing his best to invite the Druddigon to come along._

The children mulled the invitation, looked at each other, and then the eldest decided to take a chance on this gathering of 'Dragon Tamers'. If nothing else, it was surely bound to be someplace with air conditioning... Right?-

"... Eh... Fine, we'll bite. Assuming mom and dad are okay with it..."

_-One of the things that they found out was that no matter how strange or unique you think you are...-_

_

_-You're really not all that special._

When the day of the convention came, the elder brother was a bit disappointed to discover that it was held outdoors. That said, the scenery seemed to do wonders for dampening the normal irritation of the summer heat. The convention was held in a plaza ringed with ancient stone buildings in Opelucid. The aged, moss-covered buildings were like a snapshot into a bygone era, one where people still regularly went inside the Dragonspiral Tower. A snapshot that was in stark contrast to the lively hubbub in it. Naturally, a good deal of said life was human, but that life was not what caught the eye of the younger brother.-

"... Whoa... That... Is a _lot_ of dragons..."

_-All around the plaza accompanying the humans were creatures of varying shapes and sizes. While many were scaled much as the Druddigon and Axew were, a handful had more exotic bodily coverings such as feathers or chitin, one or two unfamiliar figures had fur, and another unfamiliar form was covered in slime._

Much like the humans with them, these creatures too helped to lend life to the plaza. There was a Flygon proudly beating a faint rhythm with its wings, perhaps hoping to impress the others of its kind nearby. Another Druddigon was near the mouth of an alleyway lazily rubbing some loose scales up against a craggy wall. In front of a convenience store, there was Gible and a Bagon squabbling heatedly over a ball of yarn.

As the initial shock of the sight wore off for the boy, he focused his attention on a passing quadrupedal blue form with red wings and head spikes.-

"Oh cool! A Salam-!"

_-Which turned its head, and answered in a gruff, but quizzical tone... Albeit not quite in the fashion that he or his siblings expected.-_

"Boh... Mander?"

_-I don't fully get it either, but apparently human languages aren't the only ones that aren't mutually understandable on this planet. It seems to happen to Pokémon speech, too.  
Much like her younger brother, the daughter couldn't help but ask:-_

"... Eh? What's a 'Bohmander'?"

_-A question which was quickly answered by a young man sidling up against the blue creature.-_

"Oh. He's from some islands beyond the sea... A lot of Pokémon from there talk differently than they do around here. You can pet him if you want. He's a good sport, even if he doesn't smile much."

_-To be fair on the Salamence, a dragon's smile isn't terribly reassuring. It tends to look closer to the expression you'd expect it to have when it found lunch.  
Though the Salamence was indeed a good sport. After the daughter cautiously stuck her hand under the Salamence's chin, she gave it a soft scratch, which evoked a content growl from it... And a growl of minorly annoyed envy from the Druddigon next to her.-_

"... Weird... But they can understand each other, right?"

_-Well... I suppose it's not right to say that the Salamence __**couldn't**__ understand other Pokémon...-_

"Well, I'm sure that it can't _possibly_ be any more obtuse than hearing a couple syllables over and over again... Actions _do_ speak louder than words, after all."

_-But, it's perhaps most accurate to say that that Salamence understood the Pokémon around it much on the same terms as its trainer did.-_

_

_-Oh right, the family also learned that there's some really annoying jerks out there who will make fun of you for the dumbest reasons._

One of the incidents that helped teach them that was unfortunately later during the same convention. The children, their guide, and their Pokémon had the misfortune to run into this real obnoxious trainer...-

"Tch. You call those dragons? No. _This_ is a dragon."

_-Who was a bit overeager to show off his Dragonite. The lardo was kinda in its own world, and too busy taking in its surroundings to really notice or care about its trainer's lack of hospitality.-_

"600 pounds, 7 feet tall, and able to fly around the world in 16 hou-"

_-Not particularly caring to be lectured by the twerp, the eldest two children attempted to swiftly put a pin in the conversation.-_

"That was debunked..."

"Yeah, there was a television episode about it!"

"... Whatever, it's still a better Pokémon than that bread slicer and that blue and red speed bump!"

_-Remember how the Salamence trainer said that actions speak louder than words? Well, tone and body language also fall under similar categories, and the blatant hostility and condescension of both from the Dragonite's trainer was not lost on anyone present.-_

"Gon!"

"Axew!"

"... Come on, let's go somewhere else."

_

_-That's not to say that that jerk ruined the convention for them._

Why, just a little bit later, the members of that family learned a bit of a nicer lesson: That some of the nicest things you'll ever meet come in the packages you expect least...

Granted, it involved the Druddigon and Axew getting lost while wandering off.-

"Gon?"

_-Now, a Pokémon wandering off from its trainer isn't necessarily the end of the world. If they're in a safe place and familiar with their surroundings, there's surely no harm done._

Unfortunately, for two Pokémon that had spent the bulk of their time in Icirrus, a sea of bodies somewhere deep in Opelucid wasn't exactly 'familiar'.-

"A... Axew?"

_-And for the Axew, it certainly didn't feel anywhere near as safe. Had it not been for the presence of his larger friend, he likely would have shrank away in a corner from the foreign masses rather than timidly lead the Druddigon forth trying to piece together a direction from vague memories of the square in past times.-_

"A-"

_-…which came to an abrupt halt after the Axew bumped into an aloft blue leg and was knocked down. As he regained he bearings, the Axew quickly noticed that the blue leg was a Hydreigon's. And that the rest of the Hydreigon quickly craned its main neck down to face him eye-to-eye.-_

"Drei?"

_-For reference, getting a red-eyed head with razor teeth belonging to a creature that's supposed to attack and eat just about everything abruptly shoved in your face isn't exactly what anything would find reassuring._

And for the Axew, it was just the sight that he needed to have what little boldness he had evaporate.-

"A... A-Axew!"

"Gon..."

_-It must have been a quite the scene in retrospect. An Axew beelining behind a Druddigon and shivering out of fright. With said Druddigon giving a low growl to basically tell the flying demon dragon in front of her to step off. The Hydreigon, acutely aware that it was getting dirty looks from passersby, shot a number of leers at the two Pokémon. But for whatever reason, it decided to be a bit more gracious and rather than leave the two obviously stranded Pokémon to continue wandering aimlessly...-_

"Dreigon?"

_-It seemed to actually be offering assistance, which began to make the Druddigon and Axew feel rather silly about themselves. After a couple sheepish moments and some apologetic looks, the Druddigon pressed the glaring issue besetting her and her friend.-_

"Dru... Druddigon?"

"Drei. Hydreigon."

_-Which was quickly resolved after the Hydreigon pointed a lesser head behind the pair, and towards a group consisting of four rather concerned-looking children, with the neighbor girl frantically scanning for their missing charges.-_

"Oh no...

Where could they have gone?!"

_-As the neighbor girl frantically searched high and low, the Hydreigon nudged her Axew and her companions' Druddigon towards the group.-_

"They were just here a moment ago-

OH!"

_-Who quickly filled her vision upon turning around. A rather sheepish-looking Axew and Druddigon... Accompanied by a jet-black figure that attempted to offer up an explanation.-_

"Drei... Hydreigon."

"Er... Uh... Thank you."

_-After quickly putting two and two together, she rewarded the red-eyed figure with a pat, still somewhat incredulous of the turn of events.-_

_

_-With the passage of time, a Pokémon's body changes. Some get bigger, others change in more noticeable ways. A couple of years after the convention, the Druddigon happened to pass by the low fence separating the family's yard from the neighbors'. She was no longer small, nor inexperienced as she was on that fateful Christmas._

It was an normal spring day, with the grass damp from the normal spring rains the night before, the normal flowers in their normal seasonal bloom. Why, the only thing missing was the normal sounds of the neighbors' Axew taking its normal daily patrol of the property.-

"Fra..."

-But instead, she heard the sounds of a larger and unfamiliar creature pass by, and a hard knock against the fence.-

"Fraxure!"

"... Druddig-?"

_-The Druddigon quickly looked over the edge and spotted a gray and green form nursing some a long red-tipped tusk that had inadvertently knocked against the fence while turning his head, which had left a noticeable dent in one of the fence planks. His red eyes were ringed with black, as opposed to the white sclera of his younger form, which happened to spot the blue and red creature peering over.-_

"Fraxure? Fraxure!"

_-The creature hastily composed himself, and attempted to proudly flaunt his changed and stronger body. It was then that the father, with a now somewhat grayed head of hair, walked in on the scene and called out to the neighbor girl watching her Pokémon's display from the porch.-_

"Heh... So... he's finally evolved?"

"Yeah... He's still shorter than your dragon though..."

"Hmm hmm... He'll catch up..."

_-The Druddigon couldn't help but be fascinated with how much her counterpart had changed, and at the same time also couldn't help but feel a tad bemused at its braggadacio.-_

_

_-Pokémon also change in more subtle ways too. A couple years after the neighbor Axew evolved into a Fraxure, it was spring once again, and he had changed yet again. He grew still larger and still stronger. His tusks transformed in shape and size to form prominent blade-like arcs, with red pigments along their edges._

But most importantly, he grew a long and tall neck.-

"Hax... Haxorus?"

_-Now __**he**__ could peer over the fence at the Druddigon.-_

"Druddigon..."

_-For her part, the Druddigon was rather content with the change. After all, it made communicating a bit easier. And...-_

"Gon..."

_-It also allowed the Druddigon to more easily have intimate moments with the Haxorus. His trainer was also thankful for that, if for some different reasons...-_

"Aww... She's so cute when she nuzzles his snout like that!"

_-In this particular meeting, the older brother chanced to be out to eavesdrop, and couldn't help but find the statement to be a touch overblown.-_

"Well... I'm not sure if I'd call an axeface cu-"

"Haxorus..."

_-Which he quickly shut up about after watching the Haxorus slip its arms over the fence line and embrace his household's Druddigon.-_

"... Okay fine, I'll admit, that's pretty cute.

They've really taken a liking to each other, haven't they?"

_

_-These sorts of things tend to be sorta just assumed... At least until something happens. For the family, those assumptions were broken later that fall. The air was crisp, the leaves were turning ochre and falling from the trees. It really should have been a beautiful and enjoyable day... But it wasn't._

Instead, the family's children were huddled around a television, by chance accompanied by the household's Pokémon. The Pokémon were particularly unsettled by how the Druddigon and the Meinshao with them seemed to be reacting to the images.

The two were... Unhappy, to say the least. The Druddigon simply wouldn't stop growling at the images. Her lavender mentor was quieter, but his posture betrayed a tension that made one suspect that the Meinshao was about to put a fist through the screen.

The children present would have been best described as having been consumed by shock. The elder brother and the daughter, normally quick to provide commentary, could only manage to react with:-

"... Holy cow."

"I know, Dragonspiral Tower looks like a wreck now..."

_-If you were watching television that day, you might have seen those images too. Images of ancient pillars and walls in Dragonspiral Tower cavalierly razed, with a hole punched into its side at ground level and its roof torn away and strewn across the ground below._

It was a sight that struck very close to home for everyone around the television, and especially so for the two Pokémon that had hailed from the tower's surroundings. A bit unnerved by the Druddigon's tone, the elder brother made a noble, if rather ineffectual attempt to reassure her.-

"I know... It bites. But I'm sure it'll work out."

_-The people that made that happen were a bunch of Philistines, destroying the history they could never have understood, while claiming to do in the interests of those who tried to guard special places like those. History eventually exposed those frauds for who they were and the hollowness of their words..._

But unfortunately, none of that had not come to pass yet, and the destruction on the screen led to the daughter trying and failing to fully understand the method behind the culprits' madness.-

"What could have _done_ that though? I mean, the news said that Team Plasma was there... But... Why damage the walls at the _top_ floor too?"

_-It was something that seemed to defy all logic. After all, one would need to enter and exit Dragonspiral Tower from the ground, so what would the purpose be of clearing a skyward exit? The younger brother thought about it, and entertained a conclusion that while fantastic, seemed to be the only explanation that made any sense to his mind:-_

"... You don't think that... That thing awoke?"

_-The elder brother, himself unsettled a bit by the images on the screen, harshly shot down his younger brother's hypothesis._

After all, what time was this to try and be entertaining fairy stories? In a world where it was already hard enough making sense of mundane reason at times.-

"Bah, that's nonsense! Thing's a legend! A mythological allegory for the greed and shortsightedness of people long dead!"

_-Eh... Not quite. But I guess I can see how one could have thought that. Either way, it probably wasn't the most prudent thing to say given the leers that he got from the Druddigon and Mienshao over that.-_

"Druddigon!"

_-Alas, the Druddigon was always one to be a bit more vocal when exasperated._

It was yet another thing to help sour a already upended evening for the lot of them.-

_

_-Anyways, they all managed to pull themselves together and move on in the short term... Though returning to that place was rather awkward for the lot of them._

Not too long after the fateful newscast, the children made up their mind to see the damage done to their local landmark for themselves. The Druddigon served as their guide for the occasion, much as she had many times over the preceding years.-

"MIENFOO!"

_-Unfortunately, on that day there would be no such visit as some leering denizens of the tower burst out of the brush... Not that it was immediately apparent to the daughter, who was taken rather aback at being accosted.-_

"Eh?!"

_-After all, this was far from their first time venturing into the surroundings of Dragonspiral Tower, and they had long since learned the local etiquette for appeasing the Pokémon that dwelled there._

It made seeing the smoldering eyes of the wild Pokémon, with a look in them which seemed to be something akin to anger from betrayal all the more unsettling. The elder brother attempted to reassure the creatures that they meant no harm, and were harmless gawkers much as the travelers these creatures were accustomed to encountering.-

The eldest attempted to reassure the creatures that they meant no harm.

"Easy! Easy! We just wanted to look around!"

_-Unfortunately for him, his entreaty was met with a loud and bellicose roar from a wild Druddigon. The sensation was intimidating, but especially so for the now-Sawsbuck that accompanied the daughter, which nervously backpedaled on the off chance that the irate creature might by chance take a bite out of it. The younger brother, starting to visibly lose heart over the whole predicament, appealed to the creatures' memories.-_

"Yeah! We've been here before!"

_-But no luck... The creatures*had had their trust in such visitors badly shaken, and wanted the intruders before them to be anywhere but where they presently were.* The upset figures continued to advance on the group... Which prompted an intercession from a less human source.-_

"Druddigon!"

_-The children's guide, who had once dwelt in the same ranks, ate from the same meals, and slept in the same catacombs and clearings... Made her own attempt of an appeal. There was a short moment of silence as the creatures from the brush traded looks with each other, unsure how they should respond, before one of the wild Druddigon broke the silence with a low growl._

Not one of challenge, but of warning. The growl that seemed to communicate that regardless of who this Druddigon and the entities with her were, that this was one of those occasions not to challenge things, but to step off and just accept them as they were.

The Druddigon began to grow visibly downcast, and while the warning wasn't understood verbatim, the daughter and the elder brother seemed to get the rough idea of what the growl meant.-

"Erm... Maybe we should just back off for a while."

"Yeah, they've been through a lot."

_-The party hesitantly turned around and departed back for their home in Icirrus. Some of them, such as the younger brother, were still fairly shaken from their ordeal. As for their guide..._

All the way back, she could not help but look back uneasily towards the tower, and wonder if perhaps there was some way she could have better handled the whole episode.-

_

_-Things only got more awkward when the matter or myth or fact was settled once and for all. A couple of days later, the children were once again huddled around the television watching the news. This time, the newsfeed came from Opelucid, and focused on a young man with a black and white cap and long green hair on the screen who spoke..._

Saying crazy things. Things like the bond between Pokémon and humans being a sham, a saccharine front for exploitation.

They were the things that one would normally dismiss as incoherent rants, but the atmosphere changed after he claimed some sort of title... Maybe it was the 'Hero of Truth'... Or was it 'Ideals'? Either way, that's not that important in retrospect.

The more important part was that day was that it wasn't just ANY schmo rambling incoherently, but one who claimed to be in the good graces with some manner of local legendary figure.

It was then that the sound of a fierce, alien roar came from the television and the camera panned up to reveal something that really unsettled the eldest child.-

"... That's."

"It- It can't be."

_-The daughter was only marginally less stunned than her elder brother, but was still cogent enough to put the denial to rest with two simple words:-_

"It is..."

"... Gon..."

_-As the Druddigon stared at the screen with a dumbstruck awe at the creature on the screen, the younger brother turned away from the television, visibly troubled.-_

"... Maybe... We've also been wrong about other things..."

_-As reference, but the older brother in that family was not really one to take pressure too well. That incident wasn't an exception, and he promptly lashed out:- _

"Don't listen to that garbage from the television! What on earth does that guy know?!"

_-His sister, always the one to try and pursue a more calculated rationality, also tried to soothe her younger sibling.-_

"Yeah... Doesn't exactly take much to make bold statements with strong friends behind you..."

_-Not that either of them really managed to help much._

I'll admit, I can understand why that was a very conflicting moment for them. It was the sort of moment where you get these jumbled-up feelings that make you prone to doing foolish things.-

_

_-In the dead of that night, the younger brother snuck out with two Pokéballs belonging to his father. Originally he had planned to try and take his siblings' along as well, but as with many things that involve sneaking around at night, there comes a point where you just have to stop being greedy and be satisfied with what you were able to get._

The boy had slipped up north of the town, hugging more commonly traveled paths in order to avoid encountering the local creatures. After making his way far enough on one of the paths, he stopped, and tapped the center of the orbs to let the Pokémon within out.

If anyone else was there snooping on him, I haven't ever heard from them, but if there were, they would have seen the forms of a Druddigon and Meinshao materializing and groggily stirring and starting to register that they weren't in the house.-

"... Mien?"

"Druddigon?"

_-It was the edge of the forest that ringed Dragonspiral Tower. The Drudiggon at first gave a bit of a frustrated look to the Meinshao, surely wondering just what on earth this kid was thinking dragging them off to play tour guide at that unholy hour._

It was then that she noticed that the Meinshao seemed strangely worried, and that peculiarly, it was just them and the younger brother on that path.-

"... You're home. Go back."

_-The Druddigon blinked, she was unsure what to make of the child. He didn't __**seem**__ to want to head into the forests at this hour. And why had he come alone? And was it healthy for him to be up while the stars were out?-_

"Druddi... Gon?"

"Why are you two just standing here? Go back!"

"Shao..."

_-The Mienshao, sensing that something was very, very amiss with the boy and his behavior reached out to attempt to reassure him. It was a gesture that should have been comforting, it was the same one the creature had used after the boy fell off his bike when he was younger, on those days when he came home upset from school._

Only for the boy to flinch and shove the creature's paw away, much to the shock of the Mienshao and the Druddigon. The boy then spat up some words in a frustrated and choking voice:-

"Darn it, why can't you see what that man said was right?! We really DON'T have any right to be with each other! We can't understand each other! How could we hope to think that we could possibly be-?!"

_-The Druddigon watched her mentor backpedal, the mustelid unnerved by its attempt at reassurance leading to... Well, I don't think you could have called an angry tone like that 'reassured.'_

She was bewildered by why the boy could be so upset, and she couldn't help but feel as if the anger in his voice sounded similar. Maybe it was the same kind of anger that the local Pokémon had in their voices just a few days before. ... Had the two of them done something to wrong him? She couldn't think of anything... And looking at the Meinshao's startled expression, her mentor surely hadn't thought of anything either.

If only there was something she could do to tell him that if something was wrong, that she'd never have done it deliberately. That she was still the same Pokémon that had grown up alongside the boy since that Christmas morning...

The Druddigon then realized that there was such a way.-

"Druddigon..."

_-She leaned in towards the boy, and embraced him.-_

"Ah!"

_-As the boy flinched, he paused, noticing that the Druddigon was nuzzling his chest. As he stood there trying to make sense of her gesture, the Mienshao warily attempted to reassure the boy by patting his shoulder._

The boy then made sense of the gesture and their intention, and that perhaps he was not as powerless to understand the two as he had thought.-

"... I've been making a fool of myself, haven't I?"

_-A few tears began to dribble from the boy's eyes, as he finally reciprocated the Druddigon's embrace, just in time for the first rays of the coming morning sun to peek over the horizon.-_

_

_-They all were, really... Anyhow. That all blew over, and life went on- Why are you giving me that look? I'll __**tell**__ you how I know all of this when the story's over, alright?-_


	3. Homemaking

_-"Wasn't __**that**__ the ending?" Eh? Of course not! After all, life's a continuous journey, one where you always keep learning things. And there were still a few awkward phases of life that awaited that little family from the outskirts of Icirrus...- _

_

_-Like having to see the nest empty a bit._

The summer after everything regarding that whole "reawakening of legends" thing, it came time for the eldest son to set out from home. Not to try his luck with the league again, but to move onto another school. One where he would learn drier subjects than he would have learned previously, and far enough from home that his presence back in the house could no longer be taken for granted at night. It was a definitely an occasion with great gravity to it, and all of the family turned out that day in order to see off the elder brother at Mistralton's airport... knowing that it would likely be weeks, if not longer until they saw him next...-

"Goodbye!"

_-The watching forms of a Druddigon and the other Pokémon in the household watched as the mother went up to the cusp of the gate for security and embraced the young man. They had pieced together that the elder brother's presence would diminish, but they still could not help but find something off about the occasion._

The father joined his spouse, offering a sagely, though congenial, warning to his son as he too went up to embrace him-

"Good luck, and don't go _too_ crazy out there!"

_-The daughter was also present, and bade her sibling farewell on her own terms, taking a page from squabbles past. Though there was a much more amiable tenor to her parting words:-_

"Heh... We'll find out, after all!"

_-And then it came time for the youngest to give his farewell, which he did by posing a question:-_

"We'll catch up next time, right? I'll have a starter by then- Eh?!"

"Druddigon!"

_-It was at this time that the family Druddigon interrupted and went up to embrace the older child herself, which the now-grown young man couldn't help but smile at.-_

"Yeah... I think that sounds good...

I can't wait to see what you pick. Heh heh. And you'll definitely have quite the tutor to help show you the ropes."

_

_-As time continued to pass, they were reminded that they were not getting any younger. The spring after the elder son departed for college, it was once again that time of year when the snow had just melted away in favor of the first buds of spring. And, it was also once again the spring of trainerhood for one of the children in the house. Much as his elder siblings had, the younger brother that day came into the living room beaming, proudly declaring:-_

"Mom! Mom! I got a starter!"

_-She reluctantly turned from tending to a houseplant towards her child, keenly remembering just how much of a handful the other two starters in the house were, but nevertheless found herself asking:-_

"Eh? So what did you ge-?"

"Sni...?"

_-Much to her relieved surprise, she was answered by the green, serpentine form of a Snivy tugging at her leg with a pair of stubby arms. The creature looked up curiously, unsure what to make of the strange large creature. It was then that mother noticed that unlike the last two such moments in the household, her son was holding a small electronic device.-_

"I signed up for a Pokédex! Isn't it awesome? And they gave me this Snivy!"

_-The woman looked back down at the Snivy, and back at her child. These were creatures just being given out to children to accompany them on their journeys through life, so they would surely not be any more of a handful than a Venipede or a Cubone to take care of..._

Hopefully.-

"... Well... At least he looks like he'll be simpler to take care of..."

_-From the room over, the family Druddigon watched the new arrival looking around. She was not sure what to make of the creature, as she began to sense that her purpose with the family's children had seemingly been completed.-_

"Gon..."

_-It's jarring how slowly people change compared to most Pokémon. But... I guess that makes the changes all the more unsettling once you notice them.-_

_

_-As is unavoidable in life, it also came time to get used to some close friends drifting away. At the tail end of that summer, the family Druddigon lounged on the porch, taking in the sun's evening rays as the daughter and remaining son of the household played with the data entries of a Pokédex.-_

"Wow... I had no idea that you'd be able to see this many Pokémon just meeting other people around town."

"Yeah... Still, I kinda wish I had more complete entries in here. Why, if it weren't for you, dad, and the neighbors helping, I don't think I'd even have 10 height and weight measurements in here!"

_-It was one of those days where the air would suck any motivation to do anything out of a being. Though then again, perhaps it was not all the weather's fault. The elder brother had left for his faraway school once again, and the house was once again missing the characteristic hubbub that an extra person and two Pokémon contributed._

It was on this day that a certain neighbor girl (or perhaps by that point it would have been more apt to call her a neighbor woman), had reached the same phase of life as the elder brother had the year prior, and one that the daughter was perhaps but a year or two away from reaching herself.

Unlike their prior encounters, there was something visibly amiss with the neighbor today.-

"... Excuse me... Uh... Have you seen- Uh...?"

_-At first, the daughter supposed that her neighbor had perhaps misplaced some things while packing. Or perhaps she had forgotten something of the neighbor's she had borrowed?-_

"Hmm? You haven't finished packing for college yet?"

_-The young boy's Snivy, which was amusing itself with a rock, began to sense that something was amiss. It was then that a possible realization for the tense visit suddenly dawned on its owner.-_

"Wait a minute, where's your axeface? He's normally inseparable from you!"

"That's the thing! I can't _find_ him! I've tried looking everywhere! I first thought that he recalled himself to his Pokéball, but I don't understand! Where could he have gone?"

_-The Druddigon was roused by the commotion, and after staring off into the distance to try and scan for the Haxorus... came across one of the windmills in the distance.  
It was then that she realized where the neighbor's missing companion perhaps was, and began to tug at the sleeve of the daughter's shirt to gather her attention.-_

"Gon! Druddigon!"

"Eh? Where's it that you want to take us?"

_-It's not so much the drift away that is the most difficult part with friends...-_

_

_-It's having to say goodbye to them._

Much as they had once many years ago, the children found themselves in the noisy interior of a familiar windmill. This time, they were lead by the guidance of the Druddigon they had grown up with.

As they climbed the same familiar stairs, the neighbor girl once again saw her Pokémon looking out to a panorama of Icirrus.

Alone.-

"There you are-!"

"H-Hax..."

_-Immediately, the young woman noticed that there was a mournful, sniffling tone to the creature's voice. Much to her concern, as she drew nearer, she began to notice some large drops leaking from its eyes down its face and tusks.-_

"Huh? What's wrong?"

_-The children from the Druddigon's household then followed up the steps, and came across the pitiful sight. The younger of the two went over and attempted to soothe the crying Haxorus.-_

"Aww... Come on big guy, don't cry..."

_-The neighbor girl began to wipe away some tears from eyes that betrayed a dearth of self-confidence that the children had not seen for years. She pat her now fully-grown Pokémon, attempting to reassure him:-_

"Yeah... I'm sure we'll meet them again..."

"H-Haxorus!"

_-To which the Haxorus tearfully interjected, and looked over at the Druddigon._

It was then that the mystery of the Haxorus' behavior was suddenly dispelled, as the Druddigon nuzzled the still-sniffling creature, attempting to quiet it.

The neighbor girl, beginning to realize that this would not be a case that she could resolve easily, questioned her Pokémon reluctantly:-

"... Oh... Is this about that...?"

_-To which the Haxorus nodded plaintively:-_

"H-Hax..."

_-The neighbor girl paused for what seemed an eternity. She too must have wished for a way to give everyone what they wanted, as impossible as it was._

It was then that she offered what little she could to compensate.-

"... We can arrange for you to come over occasionally if it's okay with them... I mean, the PC system is still a thing, right? But we really_do_ need to get going...

If it would help, though... Maybe you could spend the night together with your friend?"

_-The Haxorus still sniffled, though began to calm down as a faint glimmer of self-confidence returned to its eyes as the younger brother offered his endorsement of the neighbor's attempt to soothe her charge.-_

"Hax... Haxorus?"

"Yeah... We'd always be happy to have you over, big guy..."

_-The Druddigon then sidled up against the Haxorus, as he finally had finally been coaxed from its despair. It was then that the daughter from the Druddigon's household advised the two:-_

"Make the most of this time.

Do whatever it is you two want to together..."

_

_-And there was the awkwardness of watching new life enter the household. It's certainly a strange time, one where a being experiences things that it never knew it wanted from deep inside of itself._

For the family, that moment came a few weeks after that night between the Haxorus and their Druddigon. On that day, the Druddigon deviated from her normal routine around the house, having chosen instead to curl up on a purloined blanket around a pair of strange objects.

When the younger brother examined the objects more closely, the creature's strange behavior suddenly began to make a bit more sense to him.-

"... She's got... Eggs?"

_-As her brother attempted to more closely examine the eggs, the daughter quickly pieced together what cosmic incident generated the Druddigon's clutch:-_

"... Oh... So _that's_ what they were doing together on their last night..."

"Huh... Interesting choice of-"

"DRUDDIGON!"

_-Much to the boy's shock, he was rebuffed by a loud roar and warning swipe from the Druddigon. As the boy tumbled back from instinctively recoiling, he cried out:-_

"GAH! What's with you?!"

_-The daughter was not fully sure, but thought that the behavior was perhaps one that she had read of before. She concluded that this was perhaps a matter that was best left be for the time being, and offered her guess as to what was "with" the Druddigon to her brother:-_

"I think she's brooding..."

"So what do we do, then?"

"... Just let her have some alone time... If she lets you interact with her eggs, so be it... Just don't force it."

_

_-But... At the same time, you see wonderful things intermixed with those awkward things as well._

A few weeks after their discovery, the Druddigon's eggs became a bit more lively. Occasionally they would rock, and would have what seemed to be faint noises emanate from them.

A now grayer-headed old man went up to the Druddigon, who had had her instinctive edge dulled from the fatigue of a dutiful vigil of incubating her offspring. The man pat her flank, speaking soothing, encouraging words.-

"Heh... It's quite something, isn't it, girl?"

"Druddigon... ... Gon?"

_-At that moment, the faint, but clear sound of a crack could be heard. The young boy in the other room picked up on the sound almost immediately, and rushed in along with his sister for a moment that they had waited patiently for weeks to witness:-_

"They're hatching! They're hatching!"

_-They were not a moment too soon, as small-but-pointed claws began to force their way through two sets of eggshells. A limb appeared from one- a tired and disoriented yellow eye poked through a hole in another._

And soon enough, the two hatchlings forced enough of their confines open to stumble out. They fell over onto the ground damp and sticky with the residual amniotic fluid from their eggs, and much as any newborn creature would, began to cry out feebly for their mother:-

"Gon! Gon!"

_-She quickly shifted over and drew in her two children, diminutive shadows of their future, little creatures bearing their mother's red head, blue hide, and thorny wings that were roughly the size of the young boy's Snivy. The mother Druddigon was about to attempt to lick the two clean of the remnants of their incubation when she was interrupted by the daughter.-_

"Hold on..."

_-The mother Druddigon tilted her head quizzically, unsure of just what the daughter wished to offer, or why she had brought a towel for this occasion.-_

"Let us help, they'll dry out a bit faster this way."

_-Aha. So that was her reasoning. The grown Druddigon tiredly consented, and gave a quiet, but happy growl and nudged her offspring towards the waiting girl._

The daughter quickly enveloped one of the two young Druddigon with the towel, which squirmed a bit as the strange human cleaned it off.-

"Gon!"

_-Who scampered back to its mother once it was freed from the strange white sensation. The other was a bit more devious, and took the opportunity to latch onto a corner of the towel with its maw and tug against it as the girl attempted to clean the second of the mother Druddigon's young.-_

"Hey! Come on, you don't want a messy rag like that!"

_-But the bemused little creature seemed to have none of it, enthralled with its white cotton and polyester quarry.-_

"Gon! Gon!"

_-As the daughter struggled to clean her troublesome charge, the younger brother approached the mother Druddigon with a cautious entreaty:-_

"... Can... Can we pet them?"

_-She hesitated for a moment, but... For whatever reason, whether it was reasoning that the young child she had grown with would surely be trustworthy, or whether it was her exhaustion speaking:-_

"Druddi... Druddigon."

_-She nodded, and tiredly nudged the small creature that had retreated to her side towards the boy, who took in the sight of him with a curious awe:-_

"Dru... Druddigon?"

_-The boy was enthralled with the little form, and reached down to heartily pet its head.-_

"... Heh... Never thought that Druddigon would start so sm- OW!"

_-Only to find himself hastily jerking away his hand from the creature and finding it to be dribbling red fluid from a scrape. The sight elicited a bit of a belated observation from the man with grayed hair:-_

"... Ah... Right. That one on the right appears to have Rough Skin. You should pat slower and in the direction of the scales next time."

_

_-And now that takes us to today, to a family's house on the outskirts of Icirrus, where the air is muggy with the seasonal heat and humidity of early summer._

As you probably guessed, the reason why I know about this family so well...

Well, it's because I'm a part of it. So then, who am I, and whose story is this?- 

"Hey! I'm back!"

"Mom! Dad! He's here!"

_-Is it the story of the young man who just opened the door to this house? The one with that Scolipede and that Palpitoad by his side?_

Is it the story of that young woman who answered the door along with her Marowak and Sawsbuck?

Or is it the story of the younger brother who just walked in with the Snivy and the-? Wait...-

"About time! What did you do, WALK from Mistralton?"

_-Come on... He has another face that follows him now.-_

"What? I wanted a bit of a more scenic route than the bus line! And security's just gotten ANNOYING ever since those morons iced over Opelucid last fa-!"

"Gon?"

_-There we go... One of the two little ones wound up tagging along with him.-_

"Heh... Little guy's growing fast, isn't he?

But... I thought she had _two_ eggs..."

"Well... We figured that the other hatchling should stay nearby... But with someone who'd be able to grow up alongside him."

"Eh? Who would that b-?"

_-The answer is... This story's none of theirs.-_

"Druddigon..."

_-It's mine. The not-so-little lizard on the left over there. As for what happened to my other child... Well, that neighbor girl __**did**__ have a brother... And he's just old enough to be traveling along with Pokémon._

Oh, and he should be opening birthday presents right about now while his sister's back in town.-

"Oh wow! A Druddigon! Thanks, mom!"

"Ha-Hax?"

"Dear! I thought we were getting another Axew!"

_-Hmm, hmm... I guess that's one benefit of them having a low fence..._

I'll have to make sure to stop by and explain to the Haxorus about what's going on... Not that his flabbergasted expression isn't amusing. Seems like the elder brother seems to think so himself.-

"Heh... Maybe we should all meet up over at someone's home... The locals have calmed down a bit... And... It probably _would_ be good to make it there before the restoration work starts..."

_-Oh! That's right! It'll be the first time since we were allowed to start visiting again that we'll actually see things start to get fixed there...-_

"... How is it that it's taken over two years for them to get that started again?"

"How many work sites can you think of that have to be planned around wild mons darting around?"

_-Bah, you say that as if that's an excuse for the pace! But anyways... That's the story of what's happened to me since I started traveling with these humans._

It's not the most interesting one... Or the most exciting one... Or the one that most others will ever hear about...

But... I'm glad that I've been able to share it with these people...

Hopefully the younger brother plans out his Trainer's Leave a bit better than his siblings, though.-


End file.
